To the left: Bjørg Månum Andersson, Director General of the Department of Seniors and Social Services; Oslo's City Hall, the meeting venue.

ECAD Advisory Board held its regular meeting on June 18 in Oslo. The Board discussed routine issues on the agenda with focus on the budget.

Once again, the Board would like to bring attention to the fact that the ECAD economy fully depends on the membership fees paid by the member cities.Membership fees are charged in accordance with the city’s population. This model was introduced in ECAD in 1998 and is still considered as the most appropriate and fair. All contributions, larger as well as smaller, paid by the member cities of different size are essential for running of an international organization of ECAD’s scale. Besides the membership fees, ECAD’s economy is formed by the generous support received from the City of Stockholm in terms of providing the organization with premises and other office needs.

The volcanic ashes that clouded the European air space prevented ECAD from holding its 17th Mayors’ Conference in April in Malta. That is why the Board went through the preparations remaining ahead of this postponed conference which will take place on 23-25 September instead. The Board is satisfied with the fact that the conference programme holds in general and only minor adjustments are needed. See more information in the menu to the left under "Conferences".

The Advisory Board was presented an up-date on Youth in Europe (YIE) programme by its manager Jon Sigfusson, Reykjavik. The programme is prolonged until 2012 with a possibility of further extension. In short, the YIE includes two parts: a survey aimed at defining risk and protective factors in regard to drug prevention in each participating city; and a mobilization of society in order to use the knowledge in designing of municipal drug preventive action plan. To remind you, the YIE is an ECAD initiative based upon a successful programme Drug Free Iceland which resulted in a great improvement of the drug situation among the Icelandic youths. Now, the idea of the YIE is not to compare cities with each other – there are many sources enabling such comparison – but to give each interested municipality a tool and a methodology which is proven efficient in reaching targets in drug prevention among the young people.

When ECAD Advisory Board holds its meetings in different member cities, an important part of the agenda includes presentation of the anti-drug work conducted by the hosts. It gives the Board members a better understanding of the needs of the members which are spread though out Europe.

In Oslo, the Board enjoyed a meeting with Anniken Hauglie, the municipal commissioner, who gave a much appreciated reflection on the drug situation in Norway in general. In addition, Assistant Director General of the Department of Seniors and Social Services Nina Backer-Roed told about a collaborative model of crime prevention among youths which is successfully being implemented in Oslo since 2006: the SaLTo-model. For more information in Egnlish please click here http://www.salto.oslo.kommune.no/statistikk_og_analyse/

ECAD Advisory Board expresses its sincere gratitude to the host, Director General BjørgMånum Andersson and the City of Oslo for the great organization of the meeting and for their warm hospitality.